


Be Right There

by TF_Pratchet



Series: Though In All Lands [1]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety, Awkward Conversations, Books, Brotherly Affection, Chance Meetings, Drama & Romance, F/M, Female Bilbo, Genderbending, Grocery Shopping, Humiliation, Jealousy, Nervousness, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One-Sided Attraction, Peeping, Pining, Reading, Reclusive Dori, Relationship Advice, Self Confidence Issues, Taunting, Tea, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, introductions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 00:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5353436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TF_Pratchet/pseuds/TF_Pratchet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every day, Bella Baggins goes out on her balcony to read, while Dori is always hard-pressed to come up with an excuse to go outside on his. Modern!verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Right There

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosa_Cotton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosa_Cotton/gifts).



> I've read most of your Fem!Bilbo pairing stories and they're all absolutely precious, so I decided to try one of my own. I hope you like it!

Every day Dorian Ries—Dori to his friends—could peek through his thin curtains, out his sliding glass doors and find her sitting on her balcony, looking deep into her reading. It was the same today as every day that Dori could remember since he’d moved into the apartment building facing hers. If he squinted, he could make out that today she was reading _Jane Eyre_.

That was quite a book, Dori knew, having read it himself. There were many things in that story to talk about, enough to fill a conversation if one had the nerve. Except he didn’t, so he turned his mind to the reader.

Bella Baggins always had her nose in a book. Sometimes her curly, shoulder-length, golden-brown hair would fall across her cheeks and Dori would sigh, folding his hands against the wish that he could touch it—not only so he could feel just how soft it was, but so he could tuck it back and see her face again.

His younger brother, whenever he could show his face at the apartment, would always make a point of saying that Dori was crazy. “If you think she’s hot, tell her,” Norris advised, blatant as ever, crossing his legs on top of the low coffee table in front of the couch.

Dori sputtered, shoving Nori’s muddy boots back where they belonged on the floor. “I don’t think she’s _hot_ , Nori, for goodness sake! She’s…just pretty…”

“ _Just_ pretty?” Nori repeated, shaking his head with a crooked smile. “Alright, whatever you say. Maybe I’ll have a crack at her.”

In the short time Dori’s mind processed those words, he’d grabbed Nori’s arm and bodily hauled him off the couch. “ _Don’t_ ,” he said sharply. Nori’s eyebrows slowly rose and Dori hastily released him, pursing his lips, cheeks flaming. Ever since the accident when they were children, the one neither spoke of, he had sworn not to use his strength against Nori, and yet…

“I’m sorry.”

“S’no trouble. That was a step in the right direction already,” Nori told him, patting his shoulder before taking his leave. As soon as the door closed behind his brother, Dori pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers and keened wordlessly.

Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to—

 _She wouldn’t like me. I’m probably a decade older than her! So improper! I would humiliate myself_.

Even so he went back to the window, moving aside the edge of the curtain just slightly to find her sinking into her chair on her balcony and setting her bookmark on the railing. If he went out _right now_ , he could speak to her before she started reading.

“Indecent,” he grumbled at himself, drawing the curtains closed.

It kept getting a little bit harder for Dori to keep reminding himself of this as he surreptitiously studied her, wishing he had anything else to do. In his family, an age difference so large…it simply wasn’t done, although he had a feeling his deceased father would have said the same as Nori. They had always been alike that way.

“Go for it,” he would command, his grin (one of the last things Dori could remember of him) stretched from ear to ear.

Yet he couldn’t. Even if he’d mustered up the courage to talk to her, the guilt from all this time he’d spent spying, practically _stalking_ her would force him back into his shell. That would hurt even worse than keeping his distance, he just knew it.

As per usual, this was what he was pondering as he walked home from the grocer’s, easily heaving his purchases along but still wishing he had a vehicle. He was sure Bella would like a young man with a car, one that would go so fast it blew her beautiful hair away from her face, flushed with laughter as the scenery sped past her.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” he chastised himself in a whisper as he turned into the alleyway between the two apartment buildings. He had to keep his head down, not only against the wind that signaled winter was closing in, but also to resist the urge to look up and see if she was there.

As he approached the side door he used to enter the building, he noticed something small and rectangular fluttering in the wind and then sliding across the gravel. He caught it underneath the toe of his boot, drawing in his breath when he realized.

“Oh! I beg your pardon, could you grab my bookmark please?” an angel’s voice called to him from on high.

Dori looked up wordlessly to find Bella peering over the railing at him, smiling apologetically.

She was smiling at him. She had spoken to him! “Uhm, o-of course,” he stammered, bending down and setting aside his bags to seize the bookmark in both hands, clutching it protectively.

“I’ll be right there,” Bella announced, disappearing from view. Dori swallowed against incoherent words, trying to tamp down his racing heart without passing out.

All at once she was there, standing in front of him. “Thank you,” she said as greeting, taking the bookmark from his lifeless fingers before he dropped it.

“You’re welcome,” Dori managed at last, to which she smiled a second time.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. Did you just move in?”

“Oh—no, I moved in about five months ago,” he said, words tumbling over each other.

Bella’s delicate eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really! Where have you been hiding yourself?” Dori wondered how he could answer that, but it was rhetorical. “I’m Bella Baggins.”

“A pleasure,” Dori told her immediately, fighting to both smile and keep the flush out of his face. Presently he couldn’t do either. “I-I need to get the groceries to my room,” he burst out, hurriedly scooping up said groceries. “It was very, very nice meeting you!”

Before she could respond, he was racing into his building, deciding it would be faster to take the stairs than wait for the elevator. He didn’t stop until he reached his room and his back was to the door, where he stood and squeezed the handles of the bags so tightly that all blood left his hands.

He hadn’t even told her his name, he realized, whimpering. He had left her there out in the cold and hadn’t even properly introduced himself. What a waste!

For the next month or so he was terrified to find that she would pop up in the most unexpected of places and would _recognize_ him, making conversation to which he would awkwardly respond, forgetting every time until it was too late to introduce himself. He was just digging himself a deeper and deeper hole, Nori would tell him, rolling his eyes at Dori’s indignant responses.

After the third time he ran into her at the library (it wasn’t as if he was _trying_ to!), he decided enough was enough. He simply wouldn’t go out until whatever curse was on him had died down. By sheer strength of will he even refrained from curtain-peeking for a (miserable, horrible, agonizing) week.

The mornings grew increasingly colder and the next time he couldn’t resist and cast a quick look through his glass doors, he saw Bella in her chair with her book, wrapped in a thick blanket. Her bookmark was on the railing again, now pinned against the wind beneath the weight of…

A teacup. The pit of Dori’s stomach instantly warmed at the sight. She liked tea, just as he did. Now there was something they had in common! Now there was an _excuse_ and a way to talk to her while calming his nerves.

This was the hardest cup of tea he’d ever had to make, he knew without a doubt, counting every minute until the pot on the stovetop whistled. He nearly spilled the brew while pouring it, for which Nori would have mercilessly teased him, since he was so careful about keeping his counters—and kitchen in general—completely clean.

Finally the sliding glass door did its job, opening to let him out onto his balcony. He hadn’t actually come out here since he’d viewed the place for the first time, so the atmosphere seemed unfamiliar and tentative. That was all him, he reminded himself, filling the air with tension.

 _You have to be better than that!_ Dori scolded himself, sinking stiffly into the chair he found there and waiting for her to notice. It took about as long as he had expected before he heard her.

“Oh, so you’re right across from me! That’s nice to know.”

Dori glanced at her, taking note of the teasing in the statement, but her eyes shone warmly. “I apologize for being so impolite last time,” he answered rather shakily, making a point of setting the teacup on his railing. “I’m Dori.” He felt a small stirring of triumph; he’d told her his name, which he should have done quite a long time ago.

“Bella, but I already told you that. Is that coffee or tea, Master Dori?”

Master— _Master_ Dori? Cultured then, not that he had thought her anything less. He tried to muster some dignity, any he had left, as he told her it was chamomile and it was his favorite. Her whole face lit up, surprising and flustering him.

“Mine too, actually!” To his dismay, her smile faltered slightly then and she sighed, gesturing to her cup. “Unfortunately, this is the last of mine and at the moment I can’t afford any more.”

“I…have a pot prepared, if you’d like,” he offered without thinking. Mortified, he momentarily closed his eyes. What would she think of that?! A complete stranger asking her to come into his home—it was worse than indecent, it was scandalous!

However, when he looked again, she didn’t seem suspicious or even uneasy. She nodded, tilting her head and openly looking him up and down. “That sounds very nice, thank you, and it’s about time!”

Dori nodded vigorously before it really sank in that she had just voiced his own thoughts. “I beg your pardon?” he sputtered, coming out of his chair.

Bella positively _beamed_ , following his example and rising. “I wondered how long it might take you to see I was interested in getting to know you. So ‘come, let us have tea and continue to talk about happy things.’” Dori blinked, distantly recognizing that as a quote, and she giggled a little. “I’ll be right there.”

With that she disappeared and Dori had never been happier that she had; it just meant she would get here all the faster.


End file.
